30 September 2014

SHOCKING - Theme park horror as rollercoaster decapitates a DEER that had wandered too close to the tracks leaving passengers riding it covered in blood

Theme park horror as rollercoaster decapitates a DEER that had wandered too close to the tracks leaving passengers riding it covered in blood

Passengers on the Ultimate train in Lightwater Valley hit the animal at 50mph
Deer was decapitated and rollercoaster passengers left covered in blood
Staff closed the ride for 30 minutes while it was checked and cleaned
Animal had bypassed the theme park's perimeter fence during the night

By Corey Charlton for MailOnline

PUBLISHED: 12:21 GMT, 29 September 2014 | UPDATED: 15:23 GMT, 29 September 2014

Theme park thrill-seekers were left shocked when the rollercoaster they were riding hit and decapitated a deer that had strayed too close to the tracks.

Passengers on the Ultimate at Lightwater Valley - the longest rollercoaster in Europe - slammed into the animal in a collision that reportedly decapitated the deer and left passengers covered in blood.

The deer was hit by the train at the amusement park near Ripon, North Yorkshire, as the train rocketed along the track reaching speeds of up to 50mph.

Scroll down for video

The Lightwater Valley theme park is home to the Ultimate (pictured), which is Europe's longest rollercoaster

The Ultimate rollercoaster at Lightwater Valley also hit a deer in 1994 - ripping off the animal's legs and trapping its antlers in the safety bars

A father-of-two from Howden, Darlington, who did not wish to be named, said: 'I knew there was something wrong.

'There was a bit of screaming but not too much. The maintenance men came and seemed to turn it off and on again and then it was fine.'

The incident happened at around 11.15am on Saturday and visitors to the park arriving were told by staff that there had been a problem involving a deer and it was being cleared away.

A spokeswoman for the theme park, one of the region's biggest attractions, said: 'We can confirm a young deer did unfortunately get hit by the Ultimate train yesterday and was killed instantly.

'There is a large perimeter fence surrounding the theme park but occasionally wild animals do manage to stray onto the park during the night.

'After the incident the Ultimate was closed for 30 minutes while the ride was thoroughly checked and then normal operation resumed.'

It is not the first time a deer has been killed after getting to close to the Ultimate rollercoaster.

Take a look at the longest rollercoaster in Europe - The Ultimate

The deer was decapitated on Saturday when hit by the rollercoaster at a speed of 50mph

In 1994 the rollercoaster hit a deer, ripping its legs off and trapping its antlers in the safety bars. Passengers were covered in the animal's blood and a 12-year-old boy was taken to hospital as a precaution.

Also in 2004 a train full of passengers on the Ultimate came to a halt when an axle fault led to two wheels falling off.

The fail-safe system meant the following train also came to a standstill leaving its 38 screaming passengers stranded 100ft above the ground.

All were safely evacuated and no one was seriously hurt but the ride had to be closed down until the cause of the fault was traced and rectified.

The ride opened in 1991 and is one of the most popular rollercoasters in the world. The 1.5mile track features drops of up to 100ft.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

INDIA - 8 Reasons Why India is So Poor

The Super Poor India !

India has 269 million (or 22 percent) people under the poverty line, as against 407 million in 2004-05. This is latest claim of India’s Planning Commission in July 2013. The more comprehensive Multidimensional Poverty Index 2013 report of UK based Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) says there 53.7 percent (or650 million) people are poor. While there can never be agreement on poverty numbers, compare these numbers with the European Union and US populations of 500 millionand 310 million, respectively.

India holds the distinction of having the most number of poor of the world – a super poor nation! Consequently, South Asia has become the world’s biggest center of extreme poverty. On the World Bank’s extreme poverty line of 1.25 dollars a day, there are roughly 500 million and 400 million extreme poor in South Asia and sub Saharan Africa, respectively. The chart below clearly shows the global poverty trends since 1981.

Given the multitude of languages, customs, cultures and “castes” in India, the reasons for poverty are also numerous and intertwined. Here an attempt is made to highlight 8 important reasons for high poverty in India. However, one message is very clear: One has to look at poverty, beyond income.

Global Poverty Trend since 1981

South Asia and sub Saharan Africa are Poorest regions in the world.

Education of girls is the best anti-poverty tool.

Poverty is Multidimensional, So should be Development

Creating A World Without Poverty: Turning the Poor into Entrepreneurs

1. Social Inequality Leading to Exclusion and Marginalization

Societies cannot progress if certain sections of people are left-out simply because they happen to be from the “wrong” class, caste, ethnic group, race or sex. If the virus of color and race based discrimination has damaged the social set up of many countries in the West, the bacteria of “caste” division has undermined the cohesive social fabric of India. Lower caste people have traditionally been excluded from the mainstream society, governed by the so called upper caste communities. They have historically lived isolated in the periphery of the villages and townships and subsisted doing only those tasks considered “unfit” for the other castes. Their un-touchability can be considered the worst form of rejection by the mainstream society.

While considerable change has taken place in people’s attitude since 1947, but the “lower caste” communities are still not satisfactorily absorbed in the mainstream society. Rural India (where 70% of the population lives) is still quite “caste conscious” compared with the urban society where education and financial well-being has largely erased the caste divisions. Mahatma Gandhi tried to remove the social stigma of un-touchability by coining the label "Harijan" (god's people) for them but with only partial success. The official label for about 170 million unfortunate lower caste people is Scheduled Caste (SC).

Another segment of society that is still very much detached from the mainstream is the tribal community forming 8% of the population. These tribal people (called Scheduled Tribe (ST)) have historically lived in secluded areas such as forests. The Colonial British designated their habitations as "excluded areas" not as any special privilege but for convenience of the colonial policies. Unfortunately, the free governments after 1947 never bothered to assimilate them into rest of the mainstream society and the tribal communities continued to remain isolated and “barely governed.” As a result, besides the poverty of the tribal communities, their backward due to lack of governance of their areas also gave rise to armed Maoist movement. It, ideologically, wants to establish communist state based on Mao’s principles through gun battle. Popularly called Naxals, these Maoists now pose the biggest internal security threat for the country.

Beside the SCs and STs, there are several other communities designated “Other Backward Classes” or simply OBC – they may or may not be Hindus. Their socioeconomic plight is also similar to SCs and STs. The list of OBCs is dynamic and every now and then the government edits it (mostly for political reasons); there is significant confusion about their exact proportion. However, most experts agree OBCs to be in the range 25 – 35% of the population.

Why this issue of marginalization is important can be guessed from the statistics: Indian population consists of roughly 16% SC, 8% ST, and 35% OBC. Hence, combined together they form 60 – 65 percent India's population! So, the population of the so-called forward or upper class is less than one-third, but who by and large control everything.

The policy of reservation in government jobs for the backward communities has certainly helped them to rise up to some extent. But it is limited to the small fraction of the backward communities that somehow managed to do well and gain education.

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2. Illiteracy

High level of illiteracy, particularly in the rural areas and among women, has been a crucial factor not only in perpetuating economic backwardness but also for high population growth. The persistence of high illiteracy has created a situation where poverty and population are feeding each other. It is well established that female literacy plays an important role in the well-being of the family in many ways. When women are educated, they not only contribute economically but also raise healthier kids and keep the family size small. Early marriage of girls and early child bearing is closely related with their low literacy; it feeds poverty.

In 2010 only 26.6% women above 25 years found to have received secondary education, as opposed to 50.4% men. In comparison, in China 54.8% women and 70.4% men had secondary education; in the US, this figure was 94.7% for women and 94.3% for men.

Population of India: What The Government Should Do

Population of India: Women Empowerment Is The Best Contraceptive

3. Population

While the growth rate of population has decreased significantly over the decades and India's population is currently growing annually at the rate of about 1.5 percent. It is largely driven by population momentum (large base of people in the fertile age); not because people want large families. Around 18 million people are added to population each year. However, not that many people are lifted out of poverty every year. Early marriage of girls and lack of awareness about reproductive healthcare, particularly in the rural areas, are major factors behind current population growth. Population is clearly a factor contributing to, and sustaining, high levels of poverty. But the Chinese population control through one-child model would be a bad example to follow for the democratic India. (Dark Side of One Child Policy of China)

Women Empowerment: Men's Way!

Child Marriages Feed Poverty

4. Gender Inequality

Gender equality is both a core concern and an essential part of human development. Indian social fabric is highly patriarchal which has left women significantly exploited and discriminated. If caste based biases work only outside home in the open society, the discrimination against women operates both in and out of homes. Not only men always get preference in every walk of life, women have always been restricted in freedom.

Their weak status, particularly in the rural areas, is at the root of most chronic problems. It is their lack of awareness or access to family planning tools and early marriage of girls and their early child bearing, which ultimately have led to high population; lack of awareness of health issues related to pregnancy and child upbringing has resulted in high mortality rate, under-nutrition and malnutrition among children; lower education and lack of freedom has resulted in low participation in societal processes. All these factors are enough to feed and sustain poverty.

The gender inequality is especially tragic not only because it excludes women from participation in democratic and social processes, but also because it gravely imperils the life prospects of future generations. The extent of gender discrimination can be measured through the Gender Inequality Index (GII), which captures the loss in a country’s progress due to gender inequality in three dimensions: reproductive health, empowerment and labor market participation.

On the GII 2012, India was ranked at 132 position among 148 countries. According to the report, all countries in South Asia, with the exception of Afghanistan, were better places for women than India – with Sri Lanka (75^th) topping them all; Nepal ranked 102^nd and Bangladesh 111^th. India ranks low partly because of its skewed sex ratio, with only 914 females every 1000 males.

Rich Mumbai

Source: Deepak Gupta on Flickr

Poor Mumbai

Source: Ayan on Flickr

Poverty Reduction: Using Business as Agent of Change in the Lives of Poor

5. Unequal Distribution of Wealth

India happens to be a rich country inhabited by very poor people. – Dr Manmohan Singh

Unfortunately, since departure of the colonial British in 1947 all economic development has taken place in the cities when the majority of the population lives in the countryside. Thus, the rural India has always remained neglected. Another peculiarity is the land holding pattern in India: most land has traditionally been under the control of a few landlords, leaving the vast majority landless. This lopsided land ownership can be traced back to the "Zamindari" system started by the colonial British. Handful zamindars became legal owners of vast tracts of land and all others had to work for them to survive. This rent seeking exploitative system has since kept a vast majority of people in the rural India poor. Land reforms were debated noisily after independence but implementation lacked honest political will, despite the famous "Bhoodan Andolan" of Vinoba Bhave. Unfortunately, land reforms are no more an issue of public debates at present. All talks of poverty removal appear to center only around economic reforms, imitating the unsuitable Western capitalism.

Poor Children Sharing Meal

Source: Indian Express, July 24, 2013

What do you think?

Other than income, what is the most effective anti-poverty measure?

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Creating A World Without Poverty: Turning The Poor Into Entrepreneurs

6. Faulty Economic Reforms

The so called economic liberalization and market reforms started in the 1990s are nothing but an attempt to replicate the Western capitalism that promotes "trickle down" economy. It serves to make the rich richer and expand the economy. If the poor which form the majority in India gain anything, it more by default than design.

It is a bad model for a populous country like India which has a large fraction of population that lives disconnected from the mainstream economy. The vast majority of the poor of the country are from the socially disadvantaged sections like the SCs/STs and OBCs. Due to their marginalization and seclusion, practically nothing trickles down to them.

Given the huge population base and poverty, India needs an "employmentcentric" economy – a lot of micro, small and medium business units. Only they can employ the huge base of unskilled or semi-skilled people. Large high-tech industrial units don't generate many jobs and certainly can't employ unskilled or low skilled people whose numbers run well beyond 350 million. According to the NSSO survey, the size of India's workforce is around 450 million. Of which only about 30 million work in the formal or organized sector. The government recognizes only about 70 million as unemployed or underemployed. Thus, there are 350 million unrecognized by the government as unemployed. Government surveys list them as "self employed" but they barely survive and live chronically in poverty. Who are these "self employed" people, more in numbers than the population of United States, and how do they survive?

They milk the cows, become seasonal farm workers, run small shops or sell on the roadsides, make incense sticks, match sticks and bidis, drive manual or auto rickshaws, work as domestic help, work as unaccounted contract workers on daily wages, work as gardeners and watchmen, or work as plumbers, carpenters or shoe repairers and so on. They have no safety net such as pension or healthcare benefits enjoyed by the regular employees and hence, are the most vulnerable. They are also the first victim of natural calamities, now becoming more frequent due to climate mess up. [It is fair to assume that most casualties due to abrupt climatic events are of the poor. Of course, nothing changes for better after their death-toll makes headline news.]

Jobless Economic Growth

The Indian economy created fewer than 3 million job between 2005 and 2010 !! Considering population growth of 18 million every year, around 10 million new jobs are needed per year!!! The current "follow West" economists of India haven't the slightest idea about what type of economic reforms India and its poor people really need. Their thinking stops at inviting "foreign direct investments" and vision fails to go beyond air conditioned corporate houses of the rich and wealthy.

I really wonder why Indian rulers don't look at the neighboring Himalayan kingdom Bhutan which rejected GDP as measure of progress long ago and follows "gross national happiness" - a sustainable model of development that considers many things other than economic growth. Even the UN is showing interest in it.

7. Corruption

Corruption and leakages in government schemes are widespread in India. Late Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi had famously admitted that only about 15% money actually reaches the ultimate beneficiaries. Even if we discard this figure as highly pessimistic and assume that say 30-35% of the welfare funds actually reach the designated beneficiaries, the rest is siphoned off by people connected to the implementing government machinery. This is a common way for the people with connections to the politicians and government bodies to acquire wealth – of course at the cost of the poor who generally have no voice or ability to assert. Another common form of corruption in schemes designed for the poor is inclusion of non-BPL people with political connections in the list of beneficiaries. The end result is that the eligible poor are denied the benefits. Poor service delivery of government programs is a norm rather than exception in India.

See all 10 photos

How India was "colonized" is reflected in this "brilliant" thinking of a British Official

8. The Colonial Rule

"A significant fact which stands out is that those parts of India which have been longest under British rule are the poorest today." – Jawaharlal Nehru, First Prime Minister of India

The colonial British rule laid the foundation for a long term and chronic poverty in India after they departed. This is what Nehru is saying in different set of words. The tiny state of Kerala in the southern India fortunately saw the least damaging influence of the British exploiters (there are many reasons for that) and is at present a unique model (in the world) of improvement in the quality of life through social and human development. It is something unthinkable for a Western brain which has been taught to see economic growth alone as "development."

It was the traditional historic prosperity of India that attracted invaders from various parts of the world in the last 2000 years. Prior to the British, India had been ruled by the foreigners like the Kushanas, Turko-Afghans and Mughals. All of them gradually got assimilated into the Indian society and culture. They not only became absorbed in India but also protected and promoted Indian society, culture and economy. None of them systematically drained India’s wealth or resources to make another country prosperous. Revenue collected or wealth acquired by them was spent within India. Whether spent on the public or for personal luxury of the ruling elite, the wealth remained within the country. Thus, India remained prosperous even in the Mughal era until the East India Company started acquiring "diwani" (right to collect revenue) around 1760. It was the beginning of the legal "loot." The colonial rule was all about robbing India to enrich Britain; other unfortunate colonized States were also bled to make Britain prosperous.

The Battle of Plasssey in June 1757 marked the beginning of British dominance (and also the beginning of end of the Mughal Empire): when a small force of the East India Company's professional troops, defeated and killed the ruling Nawab of Bengal, Siraju-ud-daula. The outcome of the battle marked a significant turning point in the history of Indian subcontinent. It allowed the English East India Company foothold on the Indian soil, from which to undertake its future expansionist ventures within and around India. Soon, after the Battle of Buxar it acquired the "diwani" in Bengal and in 1765 its rights expanded to Bihar and Orissa.

Unlike their predecessors the British, however, consciously remained in India as foreign occupiers until their departure in 1947. They remained isolated from the Indian society and culture and formed a separate class of their own within India. The only reason for their presence in India (and in other occupied regions) was to secure raw materials for British industries and other goods for the comforts of their citizens. The vast population in India also provided market for goods manufactured back home. They subordinated Indian economy to the British trade and industry. Their economic policies actively favored non-Indians or made things difficult for Indian businessmen. As occupiers, they used Indian wealth to pay for all their expansionist ventures and territory building both inside and outside India.

Moreover, the British policies forcibly disbanded community grain banks and promoted replacement of food crops for local consumption to cash crops like cotton, opium, tea and grains for export to feed the animals in England. This change in the cropping pattern left Indian farmers vulnerable to famines. There are documentary evidence to suggest the colonial rulers chose to ignore the famine affected people. It is estimated that during the two centuries of colonial rule, famines and the resulting epidemics caused over 30 million deaths. The most recent Bengal Famine of 1943-44 led to about 1.5 million deaths from starvation; 3.5 million if deaths from epidemics are also included.

In his masterpiece "Poverty and un-British Rule in India" Dadabhai Naoroji(popularly labeled as "The Grand Old Man of India" and "The Father of Indian Nationalism" ) also categorically blamed "the drain of wealth" for the poverty in India.

Conclusion

India needs several types of reforms in order to really crush widespread poverty, not just the economic liberalization imitating western economies. 1. The economic reforms need to be employment centric, focused on the unorganized sector which supports over 300 million poor, 2. Electoral and administrative reforms to root out deep rooted corruption that eats away major chunk of the welfare budget and promotes dishonesty, 3. Police and judicial reforms so that the poor feel protected; at present they are easily victimized by the rich and powerful, 4. Social and land reforms to eliminate all forms of caste or community based discriminations and empower the poor. and 5. Finally, promote women empowerment through education and healthcare; it will greatly help deal with poverty fed by the population growth.

Indian and also the global poverty experts need to learn from the tiny southern state, Kerala. It is a great example of how societies can be transformed purely based on human development and women empowerment.

Source: http://goodpal.hubpages.com/hub/Reasons-Why-India-is-So-Poor

AMAZING - Unique Blood-Colored Waterfall of Antarctica

RACE & ETHNIC - Pangasinan people

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Pangasinan (Pangasinan:Totoon Pangasinan) are the eighth largest Filipino ethnolinguistic group. They are the residents or indigenous peoples of the Province of Pangasinan, one of the provinces of the Republic of the Philippines, located on the west central area in the island of Luzon along Lingayen Gulf. The term Pangasinan can also refer to the indigenous speakers of the Pangasinan language, or people of Pangasinan heritage.

The name Pangasinan means "land of salt" or "place of salt-making"; it is derived from asin, the word for "salt" in the Pangasinan language. The Pangasinan people are also called taga-Pangasinan, which means "from Pangasinan" in the Pangasinan language.

The estimated population of the Pangasinan people in the province of Pangasinan is 1.5 million. The rest of the population of the province are mostly Ilocanos and Sambal.

Notable individuals

Urduja was a legendary woman warrior who is regarded as a heroine in Pangasinan. Malong and Palaris fought for independence from Spanish rule. The first president of the Philippines of Pangasinan origin (and the first Protestant Philippine president), Fidel V. Ramos, was elected in 1992. Other prominent people of Pangasinan descent include lawmaker Jose de Venecia, Jr., who was born in Dagupan City, Pangasinan; and actor and presidential candidate Fernando Poe, Jr., whose father was from San Carlos City, Pangasinan. Other notable Pangasinan people are Carlos P. Romulo; Victorio C. Edades; Angela Perez Baraquio; Carl Vincent; Fidel Ramos; Jose Estevez; Ambrosio Padilla; Cheryl Cosim; Jose de Venecia, Jr.; Ric Segreto; Fernando Poe, Jr.; Gloria Romero, actress; * Donita Rose; Marlou Aquino;Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo; Lolita Rodriguez; Barbara Perez; Carmen Rosales; Liza Soberano *Jhong Hilario.

Pangasinan
Total population
Cipriano Primicias · Fidel V. Ramos
1.5 million (1.75 of the Philippine population)
Regions with significant populations
Philippines (Pangasinan, Metro Manila) elsewhere
Languages
Pangasinan, Bolinao, Ilokano, Filipino, English
Religion
Predominantly Roman Catholic
Related ethnic groups
Ibanag, Igorot, Ilokano, Ivatan, Kapampangan, other Filipino peoples, other Austronesian people

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangasinan_people

PHILIPPINE - Tour Cebu, Philippines: See the beauty of this amazing tropical island.

EBOLA VIRUS - SPECIAL REPORT Ebola outbreak: Liberia's newest, largest treatment clinic already at capacity

CBC News was granted access to the Island Clinic in Monrovia

By Adrienne Arsenault, Stephanie Jenzer, CBC News

Posted: Sep 29, 2014 5:00 AM ET Last Updated: Sep 29, 2014 1:20 PM ET

Ebola Clinic in Liberia 1:31

[The CBC's senior correspondent Adrienne Arsenault, producer Stephanie Jenzer and videographer Jean-François Bisson are in Liberia's capital city of Monrovia reporting on that country's ongoing battle against the deadly Ebola virus.]

Liberia's newest and largest Ebola treatment centre was desperately needed to combat the spread of the fatal virus, yet the facility has barely helped to stop the worst outbreak in recorded history.

The centre, known as Island Clinic, was exactly seven days old when CBC News toured the “green zone," or safe zone, of the facility on Sunday. It has almost doubled the Ebola treatment capacity in Liberia's capital city of Monrovia, a major urban centre overwhelmed by an exponentially increasing number of cases of the deadly virus.

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When it opened, there were 120 beds available. Within hours, the clinic was already stretched — every space available filled with the city’s most frightened and seriously ill. Somehow, room was made for more patients and currently, by adding beds and sofas where possible, staff estimate the total number is likely closer to 200.

The World Health Organization funded the clinic and handed it over to Liberia’s Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, while UNICEF, the World Food Programme and USAID have joined the WHO donating supplies and support.

'A drop of water in an ocean'

WHO spokesperson Pieter Desloovere said the building can’t handle increasing capacity yet again because of the heavy load on the water supply and electricity, but he acknowledges the need.

“It’s a drop of water in an ocean,” he says. “The demand is so huge.”

Another challenge will be to keep Island Clinic fully staffed, not to mention finding qualified or willing-to-be-trained workers to help run the more than 20 planned facilities in Liberia over the coming months.

There is another problem brewing at the facility, as well: a threat by workers to walk off the job by Tuesday over wages. Many staff receive about $300 per month, but some told CBC News they’ve heard rumours the government is about to reduce that paycheck.

“We agreed to risk our lives, but we are not satisfied with the pay," one health worker told the CBC’s Adrienne Arsenault.

CBC coverage of Liberia's fight against Ebola

Be sure to follow Adrienne Arsenault and Stephanie Jenzer on Twitter at@adriearsenault and @StephJenzer as they provide the most recent news and coverage from Monrovia.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/

EBOLA VIRUS - Clinics still short on doctors, supplies 6 months later

Bulk of promised global aid has yet to materialize on the ground

The Associated Press Posted: Sep 28, 2014 9:34 AM ET Last Updated: Sep 29, 2014 9:06 AM ET

Ebola clinics like this one in Kenema, Sierra Leone, have been packed with patients and are short on medical supplies and

personnel. The bulk of the aid Western nations have promised to help West African countries contain the epidemic has not

yet materialized even though it has been six months since the outbreak of the vitus began. (Youssouf Bah/Associated Press)

Doctors are in short supply. So are beds for patients. Six months after the Ebola outbreak emerged for the first time in an unprepared West Africa and eventually became the worst-ever outbreak, the gap between what has been sent by other countries and private groups and what is needed is huge.

Even as countries try to marshal more resources, those needs threaten to become much greater, and possibly even insurmountable.

'We tried calling an ambulance days ago, but nobody ever came.'- Mother of Liberian child ill with Ebola

Fourteen-year-old D.J. Mulbah was taken by his mother and grandmother on Saturday in desperate pursuit of a coveted bed at the Ebola clinic run by Doctors Without Borders in Monrovia, Liberia's capital. Too weak to stand, he was put into a taxi with his backpack and a bucket for vomit. Now he lay on the dirt beside the worried women.

"He's been sick for a week with a runny stomach," said his mother, wiping the sweat off the boy's brow with her bare hands. "We tried calling an ambulance days ago, but nobody ever came."

Beds are filling up as fast as clinics can be built. Ambulance sirens blare through standstill traffic. Often, there is nowhere to take the sick except to "holding centres" where they await a bed at an Ebola treatment facility.

The virus has killed almost 3,000 people and infected more than 6,200 in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria and Senegal.

Global response inadequate

By 8 a.m., a dozen people who likely have Ebola are crouching and sitting on the ground outside the padlocked metal gates of a facility with a capacity of 160 patients. Soon, a triage nurse approaches, her voice muffled through a surgical mask covered by a plastic face shield. The clinic will take the boy. D.J. manages a faint smile. Seven of the 30 beds made available Saturday morning were vacated by survivors. The rest had died.

Statistics reviewed by The Associated Press and interviews with experts and those on the scene of one of the worst health disasters in modern history show how great the needs are and how little the world has done in response. Some foreign medical workers have bravely fought on, a few even contracting Ebola themselves as they cared for patients.

Liberia needs more than one million protective suits and other gear such as gloves and boots in order to properly fight the epidemic. (Abbas Dulleh/Associated Press)

Experts warn that the window of opportunity to snuff out the dreaded disease may close unless promises of additional assistance immediately become reality.

The existing bed capacity for Ebola patients in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria is about 820, well short of the 2,900 beds that are currently needed, according to the World Health Organization. Recently, 737 beds were pledged by countries. Yet even after the promised treatment facilities are built, they will still be at least 2,100 beds short.

The shortage of health workers is also great. The WHO has estimated that 1,000 to 2,000 international health workers are needed in West Africa. More than 200 local health workers have died of Ebola trying to save patients, complicating recruitment efforts.

Doctors Without Borders, which has more Ebola clinics than anyone, currently has 248 foreign aid workers in the region.

On Saturday, Liberia's chief medical officer, Bernice Dahn, placed herself under quarantine after her assistant died of Ebola.

CBC reporter Adrienne Arsenault and producer Stephanie Jenzer arrived in Liberia this weekend and will be sending regular reports from the field. Follow their updates at @adriearsenault and @steph.jenzer.

Burning what they must, disinfecting what they can. @CBCTheNational 2night we r at #Monrovia newest #ebola clinic. 

2:22 AM - 29 Sep 2014

U.S. to train medical staff, build field hospitals

U.S. President Barack Obama has ordered up to 3,000 U.S. military personnel to West Africa to train health workers and build more than a dozen 100-bed field hospitals, including reserved sections for infected aid workers in Liberia.

Among other promises of global assistance:

The African Union has said it will deploy 100 health workers to assist the West African countries affected by Ebola. The first batch of an AU Ebola taskforce, totaling 30 people, left for Liberia on Sept. 18. Taskforce members are expected to arrive in Sierra Leone on Oct. 5 and in Guinea by the end of October.
Britain and France have both pledged to build field hospitals in Sierra Leone and Guinea.
China is sending a 59-person lab team to Sierra Leone.
Cuba will send 461 health workers, who will be trained in biosecurity, and some will go to Liberia and Guinea.
Canada promised an additional $30 million in aid last week to go to prevention and treatment efforts.

Dr. Joanne Liu, international president of Doctors Without Borders, urged world leaders this week to take "immediate action."

"The reality on the ground today is this: The promised surge has not yet delivered," she said.

MSF and other aid workers are distributing home-care kits with gloves and surgical gowns to try and keep those awaiting hospital beds from infecting relatives at home, though only several thousand kits are being distributed in Monrovia, a city of 1.6 million.

"We have been working furiously trying to set up treatment centres, but (incoming patients) have been outpacing our ability to set them up," said Dr. Frank Mahoney, co-lead of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control team in Liberia.

Meanwhile, the National Institutes of Healthsaid Sunday it is preparing to care for an American doctor who was exposed to the Ebola virus while volunteering in Sierra Leone.

Out of what the agency called "an abundance of caution," the physician is expected to be admitted to the special isolation unit at the NIH's hospital near the nation's capital for observation. No other details were divulged.

Outbreak will get harder to contain

Unless the situation is put under control, the outbreak may infect as many as 1.4 million people by the end of the year and nearly half of those people could die, the CDC estimated this week. More than 3,000 are currently believed to have died from Ebola, which is spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of the sick.

If more people get sick than those who recover or die, the needs will grow even more pronounced.

"If this outbreak continues, the sheer caseload will make it much more difficult to contain," said Dr. Bruce Aylward, assistant-director general in charge of emergencies at WHO. "We will need more health workers to take care of them, more PPE (protective suits), more hospitals, more of everything."

A top priority is sending enough protective equipment, including gloves, gowns, masks and boots. WHO is shipping about 240,000 protective suits a month in addition to supplies sent by other agencies. Under-sourced clinics are reportedly washing and reusing protective gear that is meant to be worn once and burned.

Bernice Dahn, Liberia's chief medical officer, placed herself under quarantine on Saturday after her assistant died of Ebola. Liberia's government has asked people to keep themselves isolated for 21 days if they think they have been exposed. (James Giahyue/Reuters)

"We still do have gaps in the supply, which are quite significant," said Antonio Vigilante, the deputy special representative of the UN secretary-general in Liberia. "Nobody expected that the requirements of protective gear would go in the order of millions." Liberia now requires an estimated 1.3 million protective suits, Vigilante said.

One of the world's top makers of the suits, DuPont, says it has more than doubled production but would not say who has placed orders. Officials are also looking into whether protective clothing can be locally produced.

"The situation on the ground is just disastrous," said Dr. Heinz Feldmann, chief of virology at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who recently returned from Liberia.

"The idea of having hundreds of people in tent structures for Ebola management is unbelievable but the way this is spreading, we need to find a solution now."